In describing options, the Roman Rite is careful to give the local Church needful choices. Liturgical options are not given for the convenience or personal taste of the ministers, but for the pastoral benefit of the people. The option that has the most pastoral benefit–usually the one mentioned first–is the optimal choice.

29. The door of the church to be dedicated should be closed. At a convenient hour the people are gathered in a neighboring church or other suitable place from which the procession may proceed to the church. The relics of the Martyrs or Saints, if they are to be placed beneath the altar, are prepared in the place where the people are gathered.

RDCA II, 30 gives the greeting:

30. The Bishop, the concelebrating priests, the deacons, and the ministers, each in his own vestments, proceed to the place where the people are gathered. With the pastoral staff and the miter put aside, the Bishop greets the people, saying:

The grace and peace of God be with you all in his holy Church

The 2003 ICEL draft is an improvement, avoiding that awkward moment of a cue the assembly hardly ever hears:

In the holy Church of God may grace and peace be with you all.

Or other suitable words, taken preferably from Sacred Scripture, may be used. The people respond:

And also with you.

Or other suitable words may be used.

In the 2003 draft, the given text is “And with your spirit,” but the “other suitable words” option is retained.

As part of the greeting, the bishop gives a brief address. A reader has provided me with the 2003 ICEL draft of the RDCA. I’ll make reference to it often in this series. Translating the same passage from the same 1977 Latin edition, it reads:

Beloved brothers and sisters,we have gathered with joyto dedicate a new churchby celebrating the sacrifice of the Lord.

Let us attend to these sacred rites with deep devotionand listen to God’s word with faith,that our community,reborn from the one font of baptismand nourished at the one table,may grow into a spiritual templeand when we have been brought together at one altarmay we be lifted up by a love from on high.

This is also an improvement over 1978, which ends “as we gather round(sic) his altar in love.”

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About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in the Pacific Northwest, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.

2 Responses to RDCA II, 29-30: The Procession Assembles Itself

In the Ceremonial of Bishops we find an interesting little addition to the rite. Before the greeting, the bishop makes the sign of the cross, with the people responding. We now find this rubric in the new missal place at the beginning of the Easter Vigil, the Procession before Palm Sunday, and before the Procession on the Presentation of the Lord. Interestingly, in the CB, the same rubric is not present before the Solemn Entrance or the Simple Entrance. While the Procession is ideal, and the rite provides for great flexibility, even the drafters of the rite understood that it would be used less than that Solemn Entrance.

And interesting point is that for the Procession, the option of the bishop wearing the cope is not mentioned, which is usually the case in a procession.